This invention relates generally to a liquid crystal display device and more particularly to a liquid crystal display device for use as a video receiver display device. Recently, the application of liquid crystal display devices to television or computer video receivers in place of CRT systems has been developing at a rapid pace. Liquid crystal display devices offer a number of potential advantages over CRT devices, namely lighter weight, thinner dimensions, reduced power consumption, low voltage operation and easier viewing because they are passive-type displays. However, a great number of picture elements are required to provide a liquid crytal display device. There have been a number of proposed driving methods for use with liquid crystal display panels used as video display devices for the purpose of driving these picture elements equally. Some of these driving methods include the active-matrix driving system utilizing Thin Film Transistors (TFT) and the like, a multiplex driving system utilizing high-duty liquid crystal material, and so on. Unfortunately, these conventional driving methods suffer from a number of defects. For example, in the Thin Film Transistor driving method, it is difficult to enlarge the area of display without degrading picture quality. The high-duty liquid crystal system material is not suitable for high-density displays.
Additionally, in the prior art, a liquid crystal display using non-linear elements is driven in the same manner as a standard cathode ray tube system. In this system, the video signal is created by using two scans which are interlaced. The scanning lines of a first field and a second field are combined as one scan, taking into account the characteristics and frequency of the alternating-current driving. This conventional method unfortunately still has problems of deterioration of quality of display, such as poor contrast, due to a low effective voltage and the appearance of flicker caused by a low driving frequency.
Therefore, a novel driving method which eliminates the above-noted difficulties in the conventional methods is desired. A "direct multiplex driving method" utilizing non-linear elements such as a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) element has been developed which overcomes the aforenoted problems.